Will You Be My Player 2?
by McflyGoonieFaxFan
Summary: When Mikey wakes up as a human to find his brothers in critical condition and Splinter missing, he's thrown into the foster care system and attends high school for the first time. He shouldn't be getting attached to the awkward gamer girl in his class- he's too busy trying to change back and find Splinter. So why is she making it so hard for him to leave this new life behind?
1. No way, Shrimpy

In an ideal scenario, it would have been Leonardo who had woken up first. While Donatello had the best higher order executive functioning skills, Leonardo was a close second and the most emotionally tempered. Thus making him the ideal candidate to maintain his composure after analyzing the situation, then devise a plan and act accordingly. He was the leader, maintaining his composure and doing what was necessary was his specialty. Even though Donatello wasn't as emotionally controlled as Leonardo, his problem solving skills would've made him a great second choice. Speaking of emotional control, Raphael would've made a less than ideal candidate. His natural response to fear and confusion, and pretty much everything else for that matter, was anger. He would have been sure to cause quite the commotion. But he would've known better than to start talking about their personal history to the humans. Which leads us to the least ideal candidate, who as fate would have it, was the first one to wake up.

"Nghhhh…" Michalangelo turned onto his side in the hospital bed and nuzzled his face deep into his pillow, hugging it tight. But he realized that 'Mr. Bear' didn't smell right. It smelt bland- that is, it didn't smell like a sweaty teenage mutant hadn't washed it in who knows how many years. Then he remembered.

Mikey bolted up out of bed, instantly alert and on his feet in true ninja fashion. Doing so ripped the IV out of his arm which caused him to scream in pain. His eyes naturally followed the source of the pain, where another horrifying discovery ensued. He felt the air rush out of his lungs, clutching this human arm with his other hand- a five-fingered, human hand. He looked down- both of his flesh-toned feet had five toes. He was hyperventilating and had begun to feel light headed when an alarmed woman ran in to see what the yelling and thudding was.

"Sir, sir!" She ran up to him and placed a gentle hand on him, smiling warmly. "Its alright, everything is alright now!"

Why was she smiling so warmly? Did she not see that he was a giant green mutant turtle? But he wasn't! But why wasn't he?! Mikey placed his hands on his face, exploring the unfamiliar features.

"Everything is fine, you are okay, everything is just fine," She soothed, placing a hand on his arm. Mikey looked down at where it made contact- his arm, his whole body was trembling. With human skin, he noticed, his tactile sensations were heightened and he could feel the softness of her hand. Mikey jerked his arm from her and scrambled away from her.

He looked at her clothes- they looked like some type of medical outfit. Around him there were monitors and machines he wasn't familiar with. The lighting was bright and everything looked sterile.

His eyes widened with realization. She must be a scientist- they'd been kidnapped and experimented on.

"W-what did you do to me?" He stammered. His voice, at least, remained the same.

"There was an explosion at the TCRI laboratory… the building collapsed, falling on the people inside and on nearby civilians. You were one of the lucky ones. Your injuries were minimal, you should have no permanent damage.

"No permanent damage?! What do you call this?!" Mikey gestured to his unfamiliar anatomy.

The woman, who he now figured was probably a nurse, frowned empathetically. "I know you've been through a horrifying ordeal, but considering what you've been through this is one of the best prognoses we could have asked for. We found one dead upon arrival, and-"

Mikey's heart dropped to his stomach.

"I have three brothers, are they okay?!"

"So you're brothers…" She said, more to herself than to Mikey. She turned back. "We found four unidentified persons at site- no ID, no clothes, nothing… you were one of them,"

"Well if they looked like giant green turtle humanoids, they were probably related to me,"

She burst out laughing.

"You're hilarious!"

This left him very confused. How could she not know who his brothers were? What about this was hilarious? Didn't his brothers freak her out?

"Its good to see you so alert. I need to report straight away-"

"Wait!" He grabbed her. "What about my brothers?"

Her smile dropped. "…let me bring the doctor in. He knows more about them than I do. Let me help you back up onto the bed,"

Mikey shook his head. "Just leave me, please,"

The woman nodded and left. It felt so hard to breathe, none of this felt real. He would've inflicted some pain on himself to ensure he wasn't dreaming, since Donnie had once told him you couldn't feel pain in a dream. But his body was quite sore, so he didn't think that could be the case this time. Mikey looked down at his hands again, staring at them in awe when-

Ring! Ring! Ring!

-a loud, but familiar, ring-tone nearly made him jump out of his shell, er, skin. Mikey followed the source and found one of Donnie's shell cells taped to the side of his bed, hidden from general sight. He pulled it off and answered.

"Mikey?"

"April! Man am I glad to see you, what the shell is going on here?" He paused, "Wait, how did you know it was me?"

"Well, honestly, I didn't until I heard your voice. The four of you got quite the makeover," April's familiar face brought a lot of comfort in the middle of so much unknown.

"Four? You mean the others are like this too?"

"I don't know exactly how it happened, I was hoping you might remember,"

"I remember we were trying to help the Utrom get back to their home dimension, and we were fending off the Shredder with you, Splinter, and Casey, but something exploded and I don't remember anything after that,"

April was quiet, which was unusual. April always had something to add to conversations.

"April?"

"Sorry," April sighed. "So much has happened, its hard to know where to start. My theory is that perhaps when you were battling the Shredder and his Foot ninjas back in the laboratory, you must've knocked over a machine and caused an explosion. Or maybe some chemicals mixed first and that caused the explosion… honestly, it doesn't matter. Whatever mutagens got mixed with whatever else, something happened in that lab. When you guys were uncovered from the rubble, you were human. That was how they found you,"

"Does that mean Splinter is human too?" Mikey asked her.

April frowned. "I'm sorry… Splinter is missing,"

"Missing? What do you mean missing?! He has to be somewhere!" Mikey panicked.

"They only found you guys, me and Casey,"

"What about the Utroms? The Foot?"

"They found some bodies of foot soldiers, but not as many as what we saw there that day. But there were no Utrom,"

"Thats great! Splinters probably just chillin' with the Utrom until they can find out how to send him back!" Mikey laughed, relieved.

April smiled, "Yes, thats one possibility, but…"

Her smile vanished. Mikey didn't like that. "But? No, no buts. But is followed with something bad, and we just found out something good, so lets just end this conversation here, okay?"

"I'm sorry, theres something I have to tell you. It's important,"

Mikey groaned.

April explained, "That lab belonged to the Utrom, but there were none in the lab. Since the only people they found were foot ninja, they think the lab was owned by the foot or the purple dragons or something because thats all they have to go on. When they found the six of us, they didn't think me and Casey had any connection to you because none of you had clothes or IDs or anything. They just thought we were civilians who were outside the building when it collasped. But you were too deep in the rubble to have been outside. Besides, you had no clothes, so you couldn't have been walking around in public like that-"

"April, my brain can't take a long explanation. It's still confused from me waking up a human. Whatever you have to tell me, please just spit it out,"

She sighed. "They suspect you four were being held captive by the foot against your will for illegal human experimentation, and that you've had little contact with the outside world. They also have no idea we know each other- its the reason I can't be there at the hospital for you guys right now,"

He paused, processing what he'd just been told before continuing, "…why can't we know each other?"

"You have no ID's, no birth certificates, your pictures have been posted all over the news and nobody has been able to identify you-"

"You mean everyone in New York City has seen my little boy parts?!" He interupted.

"No! Your faces!"

Mikey sighed with relief.

"Anyways… none of you have any records. If I claimed to know you, I would likely be jailed for kidnapping or being an evil scientist or something. It also means I can't let you come home with me when you're discharged and you're going to have to find somewhere else,"

"What about Casey? Can't we stay with him?" Mikey's voice sounded panicked and whiny, but he didn't care. He felt panicky. He was scared and confused. He felt like whining.

"Casey's dead."

Mikey scoffed, a brief chuckle of disbelief. "What do you mean?"

April didn't say anything. What could she say?

Before Mikey knew what was happening, tears spilled out and rolled down his cheeks. April nodded sadly. He saw her trying to wipe her own tears away but when Mikey started, she couldn't help but begin too.

"Even if he was here, you wouldn't be able to stay with him either… you're underage, so the government will help you…" She tried to keep talking but Mikey wasn't much listening now. He grabbed the pillow off his bed and chucked it across the room just as the door opened and in walked the nurse from before with a man who was dressed in a long white jacket. He quickly hung up the phone and threw it under the bed before either of them could see that he had it.

"Woah! Um, perhaps you'd like some time alone before we talk?" The doctor suggested.

"Are they dead too?" He managed to choke out, his chest hurt terribly when his lungs trembled with each cry.

"No, they are here as well," He reassured him.

Mikey felt some relief. He said, "I need to see them,"

"I don't know if that would be the best idea right now. They are alive, but their condition is critical," The doctor warned, looking concerned. Wabblingly, Mikey stood up.

"Yes, I have to see them,"

The nurse pushed him in a wheelchair, upon doctors orders. He didn't mind, since he was feeling a bit weak. And unwelcome tears kept turning up every so often against his will as Casey's image continued to persist in his mind. He wondered if now that he was a human it would be easy to tell if he'd been crying, like in the movies when humans looked really gross after crying. As a mutant turtle, he'd once enjoyed the luxury of looking handsome no matter how many tears were shed.

 _"A skin tone this even should be on a magazine, what'd ya say, Don?" Mikey gave his best smolder._

 _"I don't know- those green overtones are a little distracting," Donatello rolled his eyes, noting how it always seemed to take longer to get ready when Mikey was with him._

 _"Don't they have laws to protect minorities of color? What about my rights?! My dreams?!"_

 _"Sorry, I don't think affirmative action covers turtles,"_

 _"If only I'd known being beautiful would be so isolating… well, I guess I would've been beautiful anyways since I was just burdened with it from birth, wouldn't I?"_

 _"If you don't quit your yappin and hurry up I'll make sure ya don't have ta worry 'bout it no more!" Ralph shouted impatiently from outside the bathroom._

Mikey then remembered the doctor had been talking, probably saying something important, and he had no idea what it was.

"I'm so sorry," He interrupted, "But I kinda zoned out just then. Can you repeat all that?"

The doctor laughed. "I'd say you're allowed to have some reduced focus ability considering you were given anesthetics,"

"Actually I'm just not very good at paying attention," He admitted.

"Your brothers are currently in intensive care so that we can continuously monitor them. When we got the call that they had found you four, we decided to place all of you into a medically induced coma as a precaution as soon as you arrived at the hospital. When the brain swells, it can be life threatening and brain tissue can be damaged or destroyed. Inducing allows the brain to rest and the swelling goes down much faster which means less damage. Two of your brothers had shown signs of brain bleeding and so we drilled a hole in their skull to relieve the pressure. Two of you didn't show any signs of a brain bleed. But other damage could have occurred so you were induced until further notice. After conducting brain scans we saw that you had no need and, aside from a few broken ribs, were in pretty good shape" The doctor explained as they left the recovery ward to make their way to intensive care.

'No wonder my chest was hurting,' He thought. 'But why is it I'm pretty much fine, when they aren't?'

"Here we are,"

Their beds were next to each other, separated by curtains. The nurse separated the curtains so that Mikey could see each of them at once. It was strange- he knew that these were his brothers, but it didn't feel like it. He couldn't even tell who was who. If he couldn't, no wonder April didn't know.

"What are your brother's names?" The doctor asked,

"Umm…" He thought of all the thing April had told him. Was it okay to give their names? What if they were being watched?

Mikey stopped fighting the tears he'd been shedding for his departed friend and let them pool out again.

"Sir, are you alright?" The doctor asked him.

"Its just… they never gave us names… And now that we're here… I just can't believe were finally safe!" He grabbed the doctor and pulled him close, hugging and sobbing into his labcoat.

"Its alright, you've been through a lot," The doctor sounded awkward, unsure of how to handle the emotionally distraught boy.

"And seeing them like this- we always dreamed of being free one day, together, and that day may never come! I just can't imagine any kind of freedom without them!"

"Doctor, I think this is too much for him, maybe we need to postpone it," The nurse suggested.

"No! I have to know, are they going to be okay!? " He cried, looking up at him desperately, tugging on his coat and shaking him. "Please, you have to tell me!"

"It's not hopeless," The doctor began, gently pulling himself away from Mikey's dramatics.

He walked over to the first bed- this human had a broken leg, wrapped in a cast and elevated. "This is the young man who didn't have any brain bleeding. But he did have some mild head trauma. He will be able to be awakened soon, his prognosis looks best. We were able to avoid amputation and replace part of the bone with steel. We also had to surgically repair a fracture in his spinal cord,"

Next, he walked to a bed that held a patient with many bandages around his head, and both hands were elevated with pins sticking out of them. "We believe he tried to protect his head by covering it with his hands, but that he was directly hit with a boulder and it crushed his fingers. He suffered significant trauma to his head- he would likely be dead if he hadn't protected his head some with his hands. Major brain trauma occurred, including a stroke. He will need to be under for some time,"

Finally he walked to the third bed. There were bandages wrapped around his head as well. "When we put you four under, we did it as a precautionary to protect you from damage until we had more information. But his scan revealed he was already in a true coma…"

"A coma is when people are asleep for a really long time, right?" Mikey asked, "And then they wake up, right?"

The doctor paused for a moment, seeming to want to chose his words carefully. "A medically induced coma is administering a small continuous dose of anesthesia. When we get rid of the anesthesia, they'll wake up. A true coma is one that occurs naturally hand it is not certain if they will wake or not. Generally, if they don't wake up after a certain time, the probability they will wake up gradually goes down and then, if they don't wake up within one year, the likelihood of awakening becomes… minuscule…

The doctor looked to Mikey to wait for his response. The boy seemed to have a blank look on his face. This was surely a lot of information for anyone to take in, let alone someone so young who'd been through who knows what kinds of trauma.

"Do you have any questions for me?"

Mikey shook his head no, not looking away from his three brothers. After several moments of silence the nurse spoke up.

"Dr. Sachdev, I think it may be best we leave our patient be,"

He nodded, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "Should you need anything at all, please alert the staff. If you would like to speak to me or nurse Joy specifically, you can ask other staff and we'll reach you as soon as we're available,"

The curtains separating the beds from the rest of the ward were drawn to give Mikey privacy. Hesitantly, Mikey made his way to the bedside of his brother whom Dr. Sachdev had said may not wake up. He was scared. Part of him didn't want to know. But he had to. Mikey lifted his hand to the humans face and gently opened his eyelid.

Deep blue.

Mikey shook his head in horror, jerking his hand back. He moaned, holding the hand of his brother and sobbing.

"Leo…" He whispered, "Leo, I'm so sorry…"

 _Donatello had just finished activating the trans-dimensional portal, and the turtle's friends had succesfully escaped the building which was rigged to explode in just minutes._

" _Until now, you have been a mere thorn in my side, but now you have destroyed the plan for revenge I've been creating for 1,000 years!" The Shredder bellowed with anger._

" _Forget revenge! If we don't stop fighting and find a way out of here, none of us are going to live!" Leonardo tried to reason with him as their swords clashed together._

" _I will destroy you by any means necessary!"_

 _Spidery, glowing red lines had encompassed the room, electrocuting anyone who tried to escape the proximity of the bomb. Out of the corner of his eye, Leo could see Donatello punching buttons furiously._

" _Guys! Penetrate his armor with your weapons, I have a plan!" Donatello shouted out to them. Everyone focused their efforts on the attack and the Shredder was soon left standing with weapons protruding from his armor, sparks of electricity flying out._

" _Fools, you think such mortal weapons can stop me?"_

" _Don't be so sure!"_

 _Donatello grabbed the wires from the Transmat and fused them together, creating an arch of electrical energy that coursed through the shredder, causing him to convulse uncontrollably until he collapsed._

" _Is he…?" Mikey poked him with his foot to see if he would stir or not._

" _No time for celebrating! We've got to get out of here, its time to go!" Donatello told them, motioning for them to gather onto the Transmat. Don punched in a few final buttons and joined them. They awaited to be beamed to a safe distance away from the bomb when suddenly the Transmat's lights stopped flickering._

" _Don, I don't know whats broke, but you betta figure it out quick!" Ralph demanded. The bomb only had 45 seconds left._

" _I-I don't understand!" Don stuttered. An evil, all-too-familiar laugh ruptured throughout the room._ _The turtles looked to the corner where Shredders armor still lay in a heap, unmoved. An small red alien emerged from underneath the Transmat control panel and, in the Shredders voice, said:_

" _I told you that I would destroy you by any means necessary!"_

" _AH!" Mikey squealed. "He's an Utrom!"_

" _He's a pain in the shell is what he is-!" Ralph moved to go crush him but Leo stopped him._

" _We need to take cover guys, fast!" He said, taking off running to where the farthest corner of the room stretched and the other three followed behind him._

" _Grab the tables! They're made of steel!" Donatello added. They began flipping tables over, beakers with serums and chemicals crashed to the floor as they attempted to form a humble barrier between themselves and the bomb. Mikey noticed the Shredder trying to join them._

" _No way shrimpy, you can't sit with us!" He grabbed the Utrom and chucked him outside their table fort, sending him flying into a few vials of mutagen. The vials fell onto the shredder and buried him in a pile, entrapping him._

 _The bomb would be going off any second now. Leo turned to his brothers._

" _Together, to the end,"_

" _Till the end," They echoed._

" _Hang on guys," Donatello said with a grimace, "This isn't going to be pretty,"_

 _The last thing Mikey remembered was Leo shoving him onto the floor and enshrouding him as the walls started collapsing._

Mikey squeezed his hand, resting his head on Leonardo's bedside.

"Leo… what the shell did you do that for?" He asked him. He let out a bleak chuckle as tears ran down his face. "Shell… I guess we don't really need to say shell anymore huh? Now that we don't have shells anymore, and we're on fanfiction instead of kid's channels, we get to use actual curse words instead of turtle puns. You should try them out, Leo, or maybe you're too good for that? I'm sure Ralph won't be…"

A hand rested on his shoulder, making him jump.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," A plump middle age woman went onto her knees so that she could be at level with Mikey. "I've been assigned to your case. I got the call that you had awoken and came as soon as I could,"

'How long have I been at their side?' Mikey wondered.

"This is your brother?" She asked. Mikey nodded solemnly.

"They said the others will be okay- well I think they did, I'm not smart enough to understand everything the doctors are saying- but they said he may not wake up-" Mikey began having trouble breathing again. The woman embraced him, placing his head on her shoulder and rubbing his back. Mikey wasn't used to this, and it shocked him out of his tears for a moment.

"I don't know everything that you have been through, but I do know one thing: the fact you are here in front of me is proof that you are a fighter!"

Mikey tensed up. Did she know? Was it possible?

"You have overcome exceptionally cruel circumstances and that takes a great deal of courage,"

"How was I courageous? They're hurt and I'm not this isn't how it should be!" Mikey raised his voice now. The woman contemplated for a moment.

"What if the reason your awake and they're not is because they need you awake, to be strong for them, help them get through this?"

Mikey scoffed, shaking his head. "No way… it should've been Le- I mean, him…" Mikey remembered what he said to the doctor about not knowing their names. This lady looked professional- she had a badge and a clipboard with her, so she was probably somebody important. Mikey figured he better stick to the story that April had told him.

"…He was the strong one, not me. He always encouraged us. And when we were trying to escape during the chaos the building collapsed and he protected me. If anything, he did it because I'm the weakest one. He must have thought I needed it, that I couldn't take care of myself…"

The woman embraced him in a hug again.

"I know you want to be here for your brothers, but when I arrived the doctor told me that you were completely distressed and you hadn't left their bedside since you awakened hours ago. He said all the stress isn't good for you,"

Had it really been hours?

"How can I be calm, they're the only family I have,"

"You have nowhere to go?"

He shook his head no.

"Well, luckily that's where I come in," She smiled warmly.

Mikey shook his head again, but more rapidly, panicked. "I can't leave them! Can't they just move my bed next to them? Or I can sleep on the floor?"

"It's not good for you to stay here- if you don't help yourself you can't help others. You're pouring out of an empty cup,"

"A what?"

"Its an expression… it means you have to recharge so that you can give it your best. And if you don't take care of yourself you won't be able to serve your brothers and do them any good,"

'Sounds like something Splinter would say. I guess that means its probably right then,' he thought. She stood up and dusted off her skirt.

"Now, what do you say we get some dinner and talk about getting you out of here?"


	2. Ice Cream and Chick Flicks

You're comments mean so much to me. Because of my OCD, it can be hard to write sometimes. Your comments help motivate me and remind me that even though I could rewrite this twenty times and it wouldn't be good enough for me, what was important was that I actually got my thoughts down and updated instead of saying this is no good and giving up. When I get a comment, any anxiety I dealt with becomes worth it and motivates me to write more. Shoutouts and big thank-yous to **iiKiwiliciousii** , **DonellaT'sGHOST** , and **BrightLotusMoon** for taking the time to review!

Thank you and enjoy,  
Mcfly

* * *

She watched in awe as Mikey breezed through an extra large pizza, one slice after another like it was nothing. While he was finishing his last slice, she spoke up.

"I've worked with kids that have been neglected and food deprived- which I'm guessing you're not judging by those muscles- and yet I've seen few that can eat that much in one sitting," She smirked. He froze in mid-bite, cheeks puffed out with food like a chipmunk. His eyes grew large and had a slightly panicked look to them

"You, uh, didn't want any did you?" He asked, voice muffled from globs of cheese.

She laughed, "I was scared to stick my hand in to grab a piece you were going so fast!"

Mikey looked down guiltily at what remained of the last slice, swallowing what was in his mouth awkwardly. "Um, well, I could cut off this part that I bit off of and give you the rest…?"

She shook her head, "Only a joke, kid. Please, go ahead,"

Mikey happily finished it off. "So, um, what do you mean you work with neglected kids? Does that mean I'm a neglected kid?"

"Well, I'm a social worker. My job is to help children who's families aren't providing proper care get into a safer home that meets all their basic needs. When word got out that there were four unidentified minors injured in that explosion, we were called to try to find out where your families were and, if you don't have a relative to stay with, help you find somewhere to stay,"

"So you're kind of like a superhero? You save kids from the bad guys?"

"Well that's one way to put it, I have to say no ones ever made my job sound so cool before," she mused

"I don't know why. I mean that's what heroes do right?"

"Well we have to do a lot of paperwork," the social worker pointed out.

"Paperwork? That might make you a sidekick," Mikey quipped.

Once again, he had her laughing. "Has anyone ever told you how funny you are?"

Mikey stopped and thought about it.

"Actually, no. Most people just think I'm annoying," He laughed awkwardly, scratching his head sheepishly.

She seemed shocked. "Really? No kidding. Well, surely your friends have told you?"

"They're my brothers," he corrected her, "They think I joke around too much and want me to be more serious. But I think they secretly enjoy my amazing sense of humor and they just pretend so they look better in front of Splint-"

His heart dropped to his stomach. Oops.

"Who is Splint?" She asked him.

"A scientist," He spewed out the first thing that came to his mind, somehow not managing to make it sound very convincing.

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow, inquiring for more information.

"He did… behavior stuff. Showed us how to act and taught us things… sometimes hit us, well mostly me actually, on the head with a wooden stick whenever one of us didn't do things right or got distracted,"

"Oh, that sounds terrible…"

'It wasn't. I'd do anything to be training with the guys and Master Splinter right now,' He thought to himself sadly. The social worker seemed to notice his sad expression.

"I didn't mean to upset you. We don't need to talk about this- you're not required to share that information with me. However, while I fended them off, for now, I should warn you that some people from the criminal justice department will probably want to ask you some questions. It might help find some of the people that were responsible,"

Great. He already slipped up with her without being interrogated, what would he do when authorities were trying to pry information out of him?

"Let's talk about something else. We found a match for someone who would not only take you in but would also be open to taking in your brothers when they are released from the hospital,"

'If they're released… if they don't die…' Mikey thought painfully. 'Like Casey…'

"We've worked with her before many times because she's been fostering children for several years. She's a successful surgeon who's got a nice 4 bedroom condo right here in the big city, but she never married and is always taking in kids,"

It sounded nice, but he was still anxious. He couldn't imagine being away from his brothers, living with a bunch of strangers trying to pretend to be a human. He just woke up as a human hours ago, he didn't have the hang of this by any means. How could he pretend to be normal and live amongst them?

The social worker smiled and reached out for his hand, placing it on top and giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "Personally, I don't think you could've gotten a better placement. But, if it doesn't work out, we'll keep searching until we find the right family for you guys,"

Mikey smiled and tried to pretend that made him feel better, but he didn't want the fancy house. He just wanted his brothers and Splinter. However, upon actually seeing the fancy house in person once they arrived, for just an instant he forgot about everything. He was spellbound by the glittering chandelier overhead. They never really got to go anywhere that was nice or fancy, and wondered to himself: 'People really live like this?'

The social worker walked up to the front desk and smiled warmly, "Good to see you again Mr. Jackowski. We're here to see Carmen Yniguez, floor 6,"

"I'll page her for you," He smiled back politely and picked up the phone. Mikey was no stranger to being easily distracted by pretty shiny things, but this time was different. He kept catching glimpses of his new features that he didn't know he had in the reflections. He leaned in closer, then pulled away, watching the wavy, slightly distorted picture change as he moved.

He felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Huh? What?" He straightened his posture quickly, feeling heat rise to his cheeks after realizing he must have looked strange investigating the shiny surface.

The social worker laughed. "This way,"

When they got out of the elevator, there was a young girl in the hall with big hair was waiting expectantly.

"Zoey! So good to see you," A wide grin spread on the social workers face. The girl smiled and allowed herself to be embraced in a hug.

"This is… um…" She seemed a little at lost for words. The girl looked at the two strangely, unsure what the problem was.

"Michael," He finished after an awkward pause.

"Oh. Um, okay…" She shook his hand, seeming a bit unsure. She turned to the woman. "Carmen is late. She got called for an emergency surgery, but she'll be here as soon as she can. She says she's very sorry for the delay. Jared is sleeping so I waited for you two to get here so you wouldn't wake him up knocking on the door. Please talk quietly."

"You got it. Do you know when she'll be back?" The social worker asked as she followed the girl inside. It wasn't as opulent as the lobby, but it could surely fit at least three of April's apartments into this one alone. It smelled like flowers and the interior looked like something out of a display from a magazine. Yet, alongside all the expertly placed interior decor children's artwork was framed and hung as though it were as luxurious as the other items in the home.

"She's on her way," Zoey said.

"That's good, it's quite late for her to be working,"

"She was about to leave when they made her stay longer. She wasn't happy," The girl sat on the far end of the couch.

"I can imagine," An awkward silence followed.

"So… you just started middle school, right?" The social worker attempted to break the silence.

"I'm in 7th grade," Zoey corrected.

"Mmm, that's right. Hows it going?"

"Okay,"

"Just okay?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, I suppose it is school after all,

"Yeah," Zoey seemed more interested in her shoelaces than she was talking about school.

Luckily Mikey didn't have to watch another painful attempt from the social worker to engage her in conversation because at that moment the door opened and a Hispanic woman in a doctors suit hurried inside, shutting the door behind her rather hard.

"So sorry guys, some idiot college kid was shoving some stuff up his ass for a hazing ritual and couldn't remove one of the items! Guess who they asked to go retrieve it? Any guesses?!"

Mikey twisted his face in disgust, wondering what on earth would compel someone to do such a thing.

"Whats hazing?" Zoey asked.

"Its when people do stupid stuff so that other people will like them and let them join clubs at college," Carmen said breathlessly, a bead of sweat running down her forehead. She set down her bags and turned to face Mikey. All the tension that she was carrying melted away when she made eye contact with him, giving a warm smile and extending her hand to shake his. "My name is Carmen,"

"Michael… " Mikey looked at her hand hesitantly, not sure if he wanted to shake it after finding out about her workday. She burst out laughing.

"I like you already, Michael!" She grabbed his hand and shook it. "Don't worry, I didn't use my hands!"

Mikey smiled awkwardly as Zoey came back with some cups of water.

"Thanks," Mikey said as he took it gratefully.

"You're welcome. Carmen, can I go to my room now?" Zoey asked, turning to her.

"Yes, thanks for all you did this evening," She wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her before she left.

"Its late, Michael, I'm sure you must be tired too. You're more than welcome to stay up if you'd like, but it will probably take me a good while to fill out the paperwork. I wouldn't mind staying up to chat, but would you rather I show you to your room and we talk tomorrow instead so you can get some rest?"

"Actually, that sounds great," Mikey said, feeling some relief wash over him. Although he considered himself extroverted, having some time to himself sounded amazing. Today was nuts, and he was overwhelmed and exhausted.

"Michael?" The social worker held out a card. "This has all my contact information on it. You can call me if you need anything at all, alright?"

"Thanks," He put the card in his pocket and followed Carmen down the hall.

"I'm normally much more prepared for foster care arrivals… I'll make it up to you in the morning. They gave me the day off tomorrow to make up for having to come in on such short notice. We'll get some breakfast and I'll drop Zoey and Jared off at the video game convention and then I'll be free to take you to go pick up some clothes, things for your room, or we can just go somewhere fun, yeah?"

"Video game convention?" A radio antenna sprouted from his head so he could further absorb this very important information.

"Oh yeah, Jared loves video games. Zoey likes them too, but she's more interested in the comic books and graphic novels,"

"Comic books?"

"Yeah- even though it's a video game convention, it's going to have other stuff there as well that's popular among gamers. Comics, anime, nerdy pop-culture, that type of thing,"

"Nerdy pop-culture?"

"Is that something you're interested in?"

"Video games… comic books… nerdy pop-culture… oh my!" Mikey pressed the back of his hand to his forehead daintily

"You're more than welcome to go! I just didn't want to drag you along into something you had no interest in, and I know its late notice and that you just met us, that you might not be feeling up for a whole lot of-"

"No dragging needed, my calendar is free, you guys seem law-abiding enough, and I'm sure a good nights rest will do me wonders!" He answered without taking a breath. Splinter had never let him go to one of those before, he said it was too risky, so Mikey had always been left to sigh longingly every time he passed an advertisement or promotional poster for a convention.

"Then lets put off any shopping for another time when there's not something so fun going on, yeah? Get some rest Michael- is it alright if I give you a hug?"

"You want to-? Oh, uh, um…" Mikey stammered, cheeks burning up.

"Oh, forgive me. I'm overstepping boundaries. I just couldn't help myself- you're such a delight. I really look forward to getting to know you," Carmen smiled warmly at him and opened a door that they'd been standing outside of for a while. It wasn't a quarter near as big as his room underground, but then again the secret ancient ceremonial ground they'd come across all those years ago was quite the stroke of luck. But it had a bed made up and ready to be used, and some basic pieces of furniture.

"I know it looks really empty now, but we'll make it your own soon, yeah? If you need anything at all, my room is the one at the end of the hall. You can wake me up if you need anything at all, okay?"

"Thank you, Ms. Carmen," Mikey closed the door and fell onto the bed with a tired sigh. He kicked off his shoes, nuzzling himself into the blankets and his eyelids began to drift shut when suddenly he sat up out of bed. What was he doing? A convention? Why didn't he think before he spoke? Splinter would reprimand him for this… he was often fussed at for his lack of impulse control. He got so excited when she talked about the video game convention that in the moment he'd forgotten what was really going on. They'd mutated again. His brothers were in critical condition. Casey was dead. Splinter was missing. He was in a house full of strangers. The government was watching his every move. Everything he knew was falling apart and what was he doing about it? Running off to play video games with some strangers he'd just met?

'Stupid, stupid, stupid…' Mikey moaned, planting his face into his pillow. 'This is exactly why my brothers don't respect me. I can't do anything right. Any of the others would know what to do,'

Mikey pulled out his shell phone and clutched it close to his chest. It was his only memorabilia from home. He thought about calling April, but he decided not to. What would he say? Something along the lines of 'I'm sad, this sucks, I want everything to go back to the way it was, what do I do, how do I fix my family, I'm never going to feel okay again, I need a pint of ice cream and a chick flick marathon, ect.' He felt so lost. Who was he without Splinter and his brothers to guide him? If his family was dependent on him making the right choices, then life would surely never be the same again.


End file.
